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CTA Welcomes New Locally Owned Concessions to Green Line

The Chicago Transit Authority welcomes two new locally owned vendors to the Green Line, continuing CTA’s strategy of partnering with local businesses as part of its ongoing expansion of concessions offerings to CTA rail customers.

The CTA Board approved new leases with Chris & Cedric Newsstand for a newsstand at the King Drive station, 400 E. 63rd St., and with Liquids 1, LLC, for a juice bar at the Cottage Grove station, 800 E. 63rd St.

“We’re pleased to partner with local businesses that can provide our customers with a more convenient and pleasant commute,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said. “In addition to increasing CTA revenue, these local businesses will provide added amenities to Green Line customers and benefit the local community.”

Chris & Cedric Newsstand is the first business venture for owners and longtime Woodlawn residents Chris Montgomery and Cedric Harris. Montgomery is a military veteran and Harris has been a lead technician with Comcast for the last eight years. The two, who are best friends, will be filling a concession space that has been vacant since construction commenced on the Lake/Englewood/Jackson Park Line in 1994.

"The Chris & Cedric Newsstand will provide the Woodlawn community and CTA riders with the latest news, magazines and more," Montgomery said. "As longtime residents of the area, we are looking forward to the opportunity to serve our community by keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest events."

Liquids 1, LLC will be operated as a juice bar by owner Donald Grayson Jr. Grayson successfully ran a juice bar while attending Ottawa University in Kansas for his Master’s in Business Administration. A Chicago native, this will be Grayson’s first business start-up in the area. The juice bar will fill a concession space at the Cottage Grove station that has been vacant since April 2013. Grayson said he hopes that Liquids 1 will bring a healthy option for people in the community.

“I grew up on the southeast side of Chicago and I have been riding the Green Line my whole life,” Grayson said. “It has also always been a very important and personal goal to bring together commerce and health in communities of color where they are both truly needed.”

The Chris & Cedric Newsstand lease is a three-year term with a net present value calculated at $4,194.17. The Liquids I lease is a 10-year lease with a net present value calculated at $23,300.97. Both leases hold two five-year options and reflect CTA’s effort to eliminate month-to-month leases and secure more long-term leases, which are mutually beneficial to the CTA, CTA tenants and the surrounding community.

Revenue generated from retail leases help boost CTA’s non-farebox revenue and provide customers and the surrounding neighborhoods with additional amenities and services that help to boost local neighborhood economies.